At the beginning of next year, for the fourteenth time, the Arts Printing House will invite you to the international children and youth festival KITOKS! This time, the festival, presenting non-traditional contemporary performing arts to a young audience, will feature works by German, Finnish, Catalan, Italian, Spanish, Belgian, French and Lithuanian creators!

“As the festival program organiser, I would like to describe the upcoming KITOKS festival as a space for encounters, listening and creating dialogue. For over a decade, this festival has been a meeting place for performing arts creators and young audiences. A place where artists from different cultures and young spectators of all ages meet. In January, we will once again invite the public to experiential installations and performances created with different artistic means and characterised by their unique aesthetics. In the upcoming festival, we will continue to present contemporary circus shows. The international program includes two performances of this genre: the little ones will witness a cosy, magical and unforgettable experience in the performance Colorsphere by artists from Finland. For a little older audience – the pop-punk performance Rollercoaster by American creator Wes Peden, currently residing in France”, says Jolita Balandytė, the director of the Arts Printing House and organiser of the KITOKS festival program.

KITOKS Festival Program: From Shadow Dancing to Modern Pop-Punk Juggling! 

An impressive range of experiences await children and youth of all ages at the Arts Printing House during the KITOKS festival. The German company Tangram Kollektiv will present their work Shades of Shadows, in which shadows will come to life and become a space for imaginative games, where expectations will collide with magic. The Finnish company Hands some Feet will invite you to the aforementioned show Colorsphere – a colourful juggling and acrobatics performance that combines technologies and circus; whereas the Catalans Samfaina De Colors will inspire peace and introspection in the performance No Moon. Italian creators Teatro Telaio will ask the young explorers to join them in the thrilling installation Archipelago, while the Spanish company El Patio Teatro will invite them to look into their inner world in the performance Insides. The Belgian company hetpaleis will present their work Framed created for teenage audience, in which they will boldly explore our body perception and aim to free us from the chains of stereotypes. Artist Wes Peden, currently residing in France, will present an adrenaline-filled juggling performance Rollercoaster. The festival KITOKS will also present an experiential, original and engaging installation for babies Soc Natura by the Catalan company L’autèntica.

Every year, during an open call this international festival also selects works by Lithuanian creators. The KITOKS 2025 festival program will feature a performance for babies by the Kaunas City Chamber Theatre exploring the world of light and darkness, based on ancient Baltic traditions – Gaja Mara. A performance Galaktikos by the teams of Teatro Istorijos and Kaunas City Chamber Theatre will take the audience to the inner space of a young boy with autism spectrum disorder; whereas the company from Klaipėda Taško Teatras will present its latest work, which will tell a charming story about accepting otherness and the power of friendship in the performance Trijulė Aukštyn Kojom. 

Festival – a place for international encounters

In January, during the KITOKS festival, presentations and encounters of two international projects Babel – or The Art of Listening in TYA and ForesTEEN will also take place. “In the context of two international projects, which events will take place during the KITOKS festival, the Arts Printing House on January 11-18 will become a space not only for encounters but also for listening and dialogue between generations and artists of different cultures. Creators from various countries together with teenagers from Lithuania and Europe, will discuss the importance and relevance of topics for young audiences in contemporary performing arts as well as the expectations of young people for the performances being created. Since one of the highlights of the upcoming festival is the youth, another foreign guest performance will be dedicated to this target audience. The performance Framed by the Belgian company hetpaleis, will explore the topic of body awareness and liberation of the attitude towards it.

The international festival for children and youth invites the audience to discover the miracle of creation, experience deep emotions and enjoy the diversity of artistic experiments. The full festival program is available at: menuspaustuve.lt. The festival is financed by: the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality.